A task seems ready to finish until you discover that someone else has the address, price or approval you need. Your deadline becomes an urgent request in their afternoon.
When you first review a task, identify the information you cannot obtain alone. Send those questions early, with enough context for the recipient to understand what you need. Give the actual date by which the answer affects the work.
Prepare a fallback
If an answer may not arrive, consider what can still proceed. You might draft the rest, use a clearly marked placeholder internally or ask whether a different person can confirm the detail. Do not present an assumption as a verified answer.
Follow up at a sensible point before the deadline and say what remains blocked. If late requests are a repeated problem, add a dependency check when work is assigned. The check can be brief: whose information does this need, and when should I ask? That small question often belongs at the start of a task instead of in its final hour.
